Too wonderful to ignore, old-fashioned balsam sports rich and varied colors of white, apple blossom pink, red, salmon and violet, some spotted with white. Vintage names such as Lady’s Slipper, Balsamine, Jumping Betty and Touch-Me-Not refer to the spring-loaded seedpods that split apart when touched, catapulting the seeds. Tolerant of humid heat, it is easy to grow and can be transplanted without harm at any growth stage-useful for filling a bare spot or two. Listed in a seed list of 1820. Self sows.

This heirloom almost slipped into obscurity, once a constant in seed catalogs of the Victorian age when doubled forms called Camellia flowered were prized. ‘Peppermint Stick’ has spotted and striped ruffled flowers in bright white and candy apple red that bloom in summer. Moist, organic, well-drained soil. Heat lover.

"Discovered by Nutall on the alluvial soil at the Arkansas and Red rivers, two or three feet high, with large purplish-pink flowers in August," The Flower Garden, 1851. The bud is encased in luminous, pale golden bracts, which resemble woven baskets. The 5" wide feathery flower heads are spectacular and make excellent dried flowers and are irresistible to bees, both native and honeybees.

A just plain wonderful native annual flower with large (4”) fluffy flowers that tickle your nose as you bend to inhale the sweet honey-like scent. Named for the straw colored bracts encasing the buds that are as intricately patterned as the etchings on Acoma pottery. Its branching habit produces many white flowers with cream centers in succession throughout midsummer and fall. A lovely cut flower too. Fertile, well-drained, alkaline soils best, with low water needs once established.

An annual relative of sweet woodruff, this freely blooming plant is a treasure. Lavender flowers, like clusters of tiny trumpets, bloom all summer long with little care. The narrow, light green leaves are whorled about the stems and the plant mounds gracefully. Described in 1935 by Hottes in The Book of Annuals. Self sows.

This little known species is a gem. It blooms continuously until temperatures dip to freezing, developing purple tinged stems in cooler weather that look fantastic with the eyed flowers of lavender and cream. Dripping with cottage garden charm, we wouldn't be without this graceful wildling. Cuttings over winter on the cool windowsill quite well.

Poor Man's Orchid they called it in the early 1800s, named for the open-faced flowers of white, pink, red and violet, each with delicate markings of varying colors arrayed along the pale green stems. A branching habit allows for a multitude of blooms that eventually fade as summer heat takes over. Also, fun to grow as a windowsill plant for a needed flowery reminder that spring will come!

This heirloom celosia is a brilliant and interesting midsummer blooming annual that never fails to please. It has glossy jewel-tone colors and substantial flowers that are exceptional fresh cut or dried for a wintertime bouquet. Provide fertile, moist yet well-drained soils.

Rich salmon pink blooms are arrayed along the upright stems of this rare heirloom. Beautiful with Shirley poppies, California poppies and ‘Blue Angel’ German catchfly. A great cut flower, it blooms longest in moderate summer areas with cool nights, elsewhere it blooms spring to summer. Provide regular to fertile very well-drained soils.

Introduced in 1798 from its native Mexico, this golden yellow daisy flower looks very much like a small black-eyed Susan with short petals and a big brown eye. They are covered with blooms all summer. The stems, trailing to 2', have a billowing effect, which lends an informal atmosphere to garden edges and containers.

This cutie-pie looks more like a miniature sunflower than a zinnia, the petite flowers composed of dark button centers surrounded by a ruff of golden-orange petals. It is a wonderful container plant or edger that sails through summer’s heat and humidity and shrugs off periods of dry weather to always look its best.

A cottage garden classic with sky blue flowers tipping at the ends of wiry stems. A carefree addition to a flowery meadow, equally at home in a container, where it can show off its sea of bloom all summer. Regular, well-drained soils suits it fine and it blooms quickly from a direct sow in spring.

Looking for all the world like small corn plants when young, it later matures bunches of pearly seeds. Believed to be one of the oldest grasses in cultivation, it was ground into flour or strung for rosaries, necklaces and teething beads. Offered in a seed list of 1810.

This heirloom variety, also called Ladyfingers, is found rarely in country gardens. In 1737, Collinson sent Bartram some seeds and its ample self-sowing has ensured its survival ever since. Tall stems display large smooth leaves and dangling blooms of deep rose swaying in the slightest breeze. "There is something oriental looking about it. It reminds me of the willow trees on Blue Willow china," says W. Yoakum.

A nostalgic charmer with loads of small bunny-face blossoms, complete with ears! This selection is easy to grow from a spring sowing direct into the garden, the flowers looking great with other early summer flowers such as Ammi and tassel flower.

Malope was recommended in 1935 by garden maven Louise Beebe Wilder for its quick bloom and long flowering season! A relative of lavatera, it has glistening striped petals that narrow at the base revealing the green calyx beneath. 'Vulcan' has larger flowers than the species and a good branching habit.